London Won By Accident

It seems that those who seek to guide the behaviour of competitors in the Olympics, are not beyond bouts of sour grapes themselves.

Alex Gilady, an Israeli IOC member and a vice-president of the Olympic broadcasters NBC, has said that he believes that London won the 2012 Olympics because one of his colleagues pressed the wrong button during the vote to decide the 2012 hosts in Singapore in July.

The mistake happened during the third-round vote, and it worked in London's favour.

The "culprit" is believed to be Lambis Nikolaou, the organiser of the Athens Olympics.

It is alleged that he voted for Paris, rather than Madrid, in the third round.

Nikolaou interrupted the count in Singapore to complain that he had not voted, but a count back showed that all eligible members had cast their votes and his protest was rejected.

London won the third round vote, but the margin between Paris and Madrid was just two votes in Paris's favour.

Had the vote been in Madrid's favour, then there would have been a tie. A further vote would have been required to decide who proceeded to face London.

Gilady is quoted as saying:

"In the vote-off all the votes supporting London would go to Madrid because the fear was that Paris had a big chance to win.

Madrid would have won against Paris, coming to the final against London, all the votes from Paris going to support Madrid. Madrid would have won. This is what you call good fortune and good luck."

All rather academic and irrelevant now, isn't it?